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This weekend marks a real opportunity for Notre Dame fans. To many Notre Dame fans this off week is the chance to not worry about football at all. Anecdotally, it seems this is the one weekend in autumn when Irish fans concentrate on things like weddings, landscaping, baseball, and restaurant weeks, but not football. In fact, some research we’ve done (and yes, we’ll share that some day) indicates that a pretty good number of Notre Dame football fans aren’t actually fans of college football at all, at least not so much so that they’d bother to watch a college football game if it doesn’t feature Notre Dame and/or the BCS championship game contenders. But Notre Dame faces 6 more opponents in the regular season, and 5 of those programs have a game this weekend. (Southern Cal is playing Cal as I write this.) That fact, combined with some fascinating matchups between marquis teams and/or past opponents, means that Irish fans have a ton of opportunity to soak in some high-interest football in a very short amount of time.

Upcoming Opponents

Navy vs. Rutgers: The Midshipmen finish the first half of their schedule this weekend after staring off 2-3. As you’re probably aware, they lost a barn-burner in Annapolis against Air Force 2 weekends ago in overtime, but you’re probably much less aware that last weekend they were blistered by Southern Miss to the tune of 63-35. Seems the Navy/Air Force game took a lot out of both parties. Meanwhile Rutgers walks in with a 4-1 record, suffering their only defeat to North Carolina. No doubt that’s got the Knights feeling a bit too big for their britches. Again. Look for yet another stadium expansion and talk of their head coach taking a bigger job any moment now. (2pm ET, ESPN3.)

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech: Remember that gaping black hole where a competitor should be in our schedule back in July? Yeah, it ain’t there anymore. Some way, some how, Wake Forest is 4-1 and 3-0 in the ACC, fresh off a 35-30 defeat of previously #23 Florida State. Granted, their opposition has not exactly been strong (this statement expressly includes Florida State), but near as I can tell the Deamon Deacons have already exceeded the very low expectations of their very apathetic fan-base. Meanwhile Virginia Tech is already 5-1 and their only loss came at the hands of the Clemson Tigers and Dabo Sweeny, so that doesn’t even really count because, seriously, “Dabo?” If for no other reason, Irish fans should tune into ESPN3.com this weekend to watch Virginia Tech run their special teams, because that’s what Virginia Tech does better than anyone else. That and super-computers. (6:30pm ET, ESPN3)

Maryland vs. Clemson: Hey, speaking of Dabo, he brings his #8 (!?) Tigers to Maryland and ESPN-U for the Terps homecoming game. Yep, seriously, the Terps are playing a top-ten team for their Homecoming game. That’s how interested Maryland is in college football, the only way to get the locals to show up is the promise of terrible sites unsuitable for children, like when you feed turtles to tigers. Maryland, of course, is now lead by Randy Edsall, best known for leading UConn to a BCS game and a win over Notre Dame in South Bend. And Randy’s not really been having much fun. He’s started 2-3 in College Park despite having, probably, the formerly best skill-set at QB in the ACC. Just a couple of weeks ago they suffred a revenge bludgeoning (38-7) at the hands of Temple, who were probably pretty ticked with Randy for beating their former coach Al Golden in his debut at Miami. Never mind all that though, tune into ESPN-U for this game just to see Dabo in action. Marvel as that blind squirrel just keeps finding one nut after another. (7pm ET, ESPN-U)

Stanford at Washington State: As much as Stanford’s Redwood of a QB, Andrew Luck, is talked about in college football circles, it feels like a good third of NFL fans are already talking about “winning the Andrew Luck Lottery,” in anticipation of him going pro next year. Stanford is, of course, undefeated and ranked #7 rather than, say, #3 or #4 probably due to the departure of former HC John Harbaugh. Thus far the trees have won all 5 of their games by at least 27 points as they methodically work their way through a schedule with very little apparent resistance. Aside from a November 5th date with #9 Oregon, it’s quite likely that their next toughest opponent will be the Irish in the season finale. Certainly Washington State will not offer up much more than quality practice time for Stanford’s reserves, but it might be worth checking this game out on Versus just to see the inevitable #1 pick in next spring’s NFL draft. (7:30pm ET, Versus)

Other Games of Interest

#6 Oklahoma State vs. #22 Texas: You could almost hear the voices of the OSU cowboys saying, “our turn!” as time expired on last weeks “Red River Shootout.” More like Red River Massacre. Oklahoma laid 55 points on Texas, who laid down while managing just 17 points themselves. And it wasn’t even close to being that close. There’s almost no way Oklahoma State, long considered the little brother of Oklahoma collegiate football, isn’t licking its chops at the chance to prove itself against the same measuring stick one week later. If this one gets out of hand in OSU’s favor, it will be well worth watching that offense seek to out-do 55 points before time runs out. (3:30 pm ET, ABC/ESPN)

#20 Baylor vs. #21 Texas A&M: The game of misfit toys. Without a doubt one of the most under-appreciated oddities of college football is the sight of Mike Sherman lead the Aggies and do it rather competently. And also without a doubt one of the most spectacular sights in college football is Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III do… anything. Seriously, RGIII is the closest thing to a human highlight reel that college football has this season, and if you’ve not watched him play this year, you’re doing yourself a disservice. (12 pm ET, FX)

#11 Michigan vs. #23 Michigan State: The transitive property of college football put to the ultimate test. In one corner, you’ve got a team playing in waters above their head while enjoying a “new coach bounce” and the services of one of the most dynamic players in the entire game. In the other, a team which quite frankly shouldn’t still be ranked at all if the Irish aren’t going to be ranked above them. Last year the Spartans contained Denard Robinson to “just” 100 yards rushing, and at the mid-point in the season, there’s no more guessing about what the Wolvering offense will look like. It’ll look pretty much exactly like it did in the 4th quarter of ND’s game with Michigan in week 2. At this point, tune in to cheer on the Spartans at least to justify their ranking above the Irish and to see if Denard Robinson does anything completely absurd. (12 pm ET, ESPN/ESPN3)

#18 Arizona State vs. #9 Oregon: Arizona State features the dirtiest player in the game and the best uniform redesign of the last 3 years. All kidding aside, the new uniforms are awesome. And all kidding aside, Vontaze Burffict will inevitably show up on The Smoking Gun years from now in a crime scandal. He’s just that dirty – it’s just that obvious. And Oregon, of course, features an offense that can’t be slowed down even if you do manage to contain them. Given the ducks started the entire uniform-redesign craze, you’ve got to wonder if they’ve got anything special in store for this game to answer to ASU’s hellfire trident logos. (10:15pm ET, ESPN/ESPN3)

Reader Interactions

Comments

I love watching any kind of CFB but I’m from Lincoln, Neb so I always watch the huskers and I go to the U of O so I watch the Ducks. That being said, i’m far more excited for the NFL on weekends when ND doesn’t play.

I am a long time Irish follower I love Notre Dame ..I live in Boise and love the Broncos..Pretty dang good team..Excellent coaching..and don’t start the crap never play anybody. they tried but other teams will not play
a return game. MONEY hell.. they are afraid they jus might get their butts whipped ..

I follow two teams and that’s it: the Irish on Saturday and the (hometown) Steelers on Sunday. I don’t think I’ve ever chosen to watch a CFB game that didn’t involve ND or an NFL game that didn’t involve the Steelers, even before I had kids or a wife. So I guess I am a living, breathing example of the phenomenon you describe. I like football, but not enough to care about teams in cities where I don’t live or at colleges I didn’t attend.

Colour me a bit obsessive. I enjoy a bye week to watch other teams and compare/contrast to us.
For example, last night USC looked very ordinary, and Barkley/Woods just decent. The Cal QB had a nightmare game, as if he had just handled the ball better plus thrown 2 less ints the game could easily have been 17-14.
Similarly, I was interested in San Diego state and Air Force. SD State actually did a better job than we did at containing the pitchman, but otherwise the two reams were pretty even.
This interests me because Michigan is claiming a big win over San Diego State.
Lets hope Mich State pounds Denard et al this weekend.
Can’t wait til next week. Go Irish

I enjoy watching any good CFB game, but I have had to limit my intake to ND and minimal other highlights due to work and wife.
I watched a little bit of Southern Cal last night, and I think we will see a lot of third down and longs followed by way too many conversions. We should get good pressure, but Barkley is a good QB who will put the ball in the right place. Cal’s secondary looked depressingly familiar at times. At the same time, they should also be playing from behind by the end of the first quarter.

They looked good against a below average team. Their d will not be able to stop our workhorses. Floyd, wood, Eiffert, Riddick, Gray, and Jones should all have big days. Especially if Rees plays smart. Our d will put Barkley on his back all day. Irish win by more than 2 scores.

That’s a good comparison. It occurred to me also that ND and USC have switched spots in the last couple seasons. ND is now the tougher team with better line play and tons of talent on offense, while SC has a good skill position players but is soft on their front lines and poorly coached in many areas.

Matt Q…your comment about rooting for the Spartans if only to justify their ranking over us is not very well founded. As hard as it is to stomach, we all need to root for both Michigan and USF to win out, so we can justify those two loses in the standings. If those two teams win out, and we do also, we earn a BCS spot and set ourselves up for a solid preseason rank next year. Thanks for the article, and Go Irish!

You might be surprised. When your kids are young you will still spend plenty of time around the house because taking them out is often a bitch. It’s not until they start with sports, dance classes, girl scouts, etc. that you’ll start having to live by the DVR.

For my sanitys sake, I hope Michigan St beats Michigan. When I look at the polls and see Michigan 11th I want to vomit. I’m still not over giving the game away to them ( I still think we are 2 TDs better than them) and quite frankly, that game has taken away a lot of the enjoyment that this 4 game winning streak ( over all crappy teams) should be giving me. If they beat USC, I will feel better about things.

Walsh- I disagree with your take. There is nothing to justify in 2 games that we lost to teams that we are much better than, because we turned over the ball 5 times in each game, and because we couldnt defend up for grabs passes in the Michigan game. Notre Dame should be 6-0 right now.

Color Mr. Kelly mean, arrogant and a man without taste. I moved to Cincinnati 9 years ago ,in time to witness the most distaste departure of a coach from a successful football team one could execute. After denying for weeks he was leaving ,he waited until the night of the senor dinner and announced it there. The players just sat there in disbelief. He once again displayed his lack of character at the last game when he replaced the quarterback and left Dayne Crist sit on the bench. What a kick in the teeth to a young man who gave Kelly every thing he’s got and is being treated like a bum. Every thing comes full circle and I hope Kelly’s day comes soon. I will allways root for the irish But I will Cheer the day he is gone. T Lynn

The heck for rooting for uM(sucks) just because it will help our ranking.
ND will earn the ranking.
I watched Sparty beat down shoelace. (He netted 47 yards rushing.
Exciting as DR is to watch, he is a terrible passer. The skunkbears will not reach the next level with him as QB.
Sparty followed ND example and penetrated into the backfield.
MSU put DR out of the game for the last 3 and 1/2 minutes.
I was a happy camper.

The fact is that Dayne Crist is a wonderful kid. He’s a high character guy and a great athlete. However, that does not make you the best person for a job in this given situation.

Bottom line, Dayne lost his spot, Tommy Rees took advantage of the situation. Case closed. Tommy is a young man with a high ceiling. I don’t agree with the whole, “He doesn’t get rattled” thing, because he clearly does.

But the difference between him and Dayne is that when he gets rattled he has the ability to reset himself and get things back on track. (See Michigan State game for example.)

Dayne has shown the knack for playing in quicksand when things go awry. (He will keep pressing and trying to fight out of the bad day instead of letting the game take care of itself and just manage the game.)

Coaches have to make tough decisions all the time. Your implication is that Tommy Rees has not worked as hard as Dayne Crist. A fact you couldn’t prove if you wanted to.

And as for Kelly leaving Cincy. He was offered an opportunity to better himself, he took it. That’s all it was. If Dayne came to coach and said “Hey, I’m gonna transfer because I think the University of whoever will give me a chance to succeed at a higher level.” I’m sure coach would wish him well.